Farming Systems, Soil Organic Matter and Soil Fauna - A Study in Cold Arid Regions of Quetta District, Balochistan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31580/pjmls.v7i3.3073Keywords:
Conservation agricultural practices, Diversified cropping system, Soil macrofauna, Tree-based intercropping system, Soil organic matterAbstract
The soil organic matter concentration (SOM) is an important soil health indicator. It has a strong positive relationship with soil macrofauna, which are ecosystem engineers. Farming systems greatly influence the concentration of SOM and therefore the abundance of soil macrofauna. This study investigated the concentration of SOM and the abundance and number of soil macrofauna species of agricultural farms of two locations (separated by approximately 45 kilometers) in Quetta district, Balochistan, Pakistan. These farms were 1) orchards of apple, apricot, cherry and plum as monocrops or mix tree stands, 2) croplands of vegetables or cereals and 3) tree-based intercropping fields (TBI). Croplands and monocrop orchards were the oldest (12 to 26 yrs age for croplands and 16 - 25 yrs age for monocrop orchards); whereas, diversified orchards and tree-based intercropping fields were the youngest fields (since the lands were converted from rangeland to cropland; 6 - 14 yrs age for diversified orchards and 3 - 6 yrs age for TBI systems). The croplands were under conventional farming systems (deep tillage and one cropland also received synthetic fertilizers). The other fields (orchards and TBI systems) were under conservation agricultural practices (minimum tillage with the use of spade and the amendment of both manure and inorganic fertilizers). Despite being old, croplands had significantly lower SOM concentrations than orchards (18.0±4.1 g kg-1 soil for croplands and 23.1±4.8 g kg-1 soil for orchards). The most diversified TBI field (4 yrs age) had significantly higher SOM concentration (23.2±3.9 g kg-1 soil) than the oldest (26 yrs age) wheat-fallow rotation system cropland (14.1±1.3 g kg-1 soil; P<0.05). Interestingly, the concentration of SOM to age ratio was 2 to 4 times significantly higher for TBI system and the diversified orchard than croplands and monocrop orchards (P<0.05). Moreover, out of four TBI systems, two fields (TBI1 with 14.8±1.5 g kg-1 soil SOM and TBI2 with 23.2±3.9 g kg-1 soil SOM) had two ant species co-existing and one TBI system (TBI3 with 18.19±3.5 g kg-1 soil SOM) had the highest number of soil macrofauna species (fire ants, snail, earthworm, brown rescue spider, ladybug, woodlice). This study shows that conservation tillage and diversified cropping system (TBI system) had positive influence on the accrual of SOM in soil and the abundance of soil macrofauna species.
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